Sharks - by Simone Buchholz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Hamburg's troubled Wilhelmsburg district, Prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a brutal double murder amid corruption and gentrification. Battling personal demons and powerful foes, she fights to expose a city's dark secrets. Germany's Queen of Krimi returns with the caustically funny, breathtakingly dark next instalment in an addictive series...

'As much a character study as the story of a crime ... like a flipbook, full of startling images and sudden movements, that will thrill cynics and romantics alike' Sunday Times

'For the first time in a long time, I found a book I simply couldn't put down - and I didn't want it to end. There really should be a word for the sadness you feel when you're nearing the end of a truly fantastic read. Sharks is that kind of book' Leye Adenle

'Taut, compulsive and laced with humour as dark as its setting, Sharks raises the bar again for one of my favourite series. Chastity Riley is the perfect anti-hero for our times, and Simone Buchholz is the real deal' Rod Reynolds

`Such a revelation´ Laura Lippman

**The Chastity Riley series WON the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger**

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In Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg's so-called 'problem area', an American couple is found brutally murdered in a derelict house.

Prosecutor Chastity Riley is assigned the case, and quickly finds herself waist-deep in a murky tangle of city planners, shady investors and vanishing officials. The gentrification machine is rolling on, and someone is sending a very clear message.

As November fog settles over the city, Chastity is coughing up blood, her personal life is a slow-motion disaster, and her former colleague, Faller, won't stop interfering. But nothing's going to stop her from cutting through the lies - not even the sharks circling ever closer.

Dark, caustic and piercing, Sharks is a searing investigation into greed, power, and the price of resistance in a city devouring itself, from one of Germany's finest, most original crime writers.

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'Richly entertaining, wickedly cutting, to the point and funny. The perfect example of a crime novel that is literally pacy and has something to say, because you know Buchholz cares about society and Hamburg, and it shows in her writing' Paul Burke, CrimeTime

Praise for the Chastity Riley series:

'A dark treat ... memorable modern noir, and a fascinating portrait of seedy life in Hamburg' Telegraph

`Simone Buchholz can make you grin, gasp or gag at will' The Times

'Beautifully concise, with commendably sparse prose, dark humour and an appealing protagonist ... uncompromising, provocative and righteously fierce' Guardian

'Beautifully written in cool, witty prose' N.J. Cooper, Literary Review

`German-American Chastity Riley [is] snooty, churlish, sarcastic, sometimes drunk and always inappropriate. The whole series breaks the boundaries of typical crime novels´ Romy Hausmann

`A distinctive voice, and a flawed but compelling protagonist ... style and sass and St Pauli´ Will Carver

`Ice-cool, effortlessly classy prose´ Observer

`Reading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers´ Graeme Macrae Burnet

`Buchholz's work remains as persuasive as ever´ Financial Times

`Simone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-ish sense of time and space ... a palpable hit´ Independent

`With brief, pacy chapters and fizzling dialogue, this almost feels like American procedural noir and not a translation´ Maxim Jakubowski

`There is a fantastic pace to the story ... a unique voice that delivers a stylish story´ NB Magazine

`A real blast of adrenaline´ Big Issue

About the Author

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau, Germany in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg. In 2016, Simone was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. The critically acclaimed Beton Rouge, Mexico Street, Hotel Cartagena and River Clyde all followed in the Chastity Riley series, with The Acapulco out in 2023. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.

Rachel Ward is a freelance translator of literary and creative texts from German and French to English. She is an avid reader and lover of word games and puzzles. Rachel discovered her passion for languages at school and went on to study modern languages at the University of East Anglia and spent her third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saaebrücken, Germany. During her final year in school, she realized that she wanted to put her skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA's MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. Rachel is a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. Her published translations include Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and RedRage by Brigitte Blobel.